Post Sale Highlights Shrinking Price of Newspapers

When news broke that Amazon.com Inc. boss Jeff Bezos had agreed to buy the Washington Post for $250 million, some media industry watchers called it shocking. Others said they saw it coming. Meanwhile people on the street, especially longtime readers, may ask, “is that all?”

After all, papers used to sell for billions of dollars, not millions, right?

The planned Post deal and the New York Times’ sale of the Boston Globe three days ago for $70 million are emblematic of the long slide print news publications have taken while battling online competition.